


you poured the gasoline, I drove into the flames

by sheg0



Category: Elyza Lex (Fanverse), Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/F, Road Trips, Zombie Apocalypse, general badassery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 06:45:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6318790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheg0/pseuds/sheg0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alicia's family is taken by bandits. Elyza's been traveling alone for a long time. They both happen to be in the right place at the right time - and also each other's savior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends. This is my take on the Alicia Clark/Elyza Lex epic story. Most of Elyza's characterization is taken from bits and pieces of headcanons on Tumblr. I love how the creation and shaping of this character has been very much a group effort and this is my interpretation of all those amazing headcanons plus some of my own. If you want to talk to me about Elyza or Alicia or zombies, I'm always game and you can find me at my tumblr: sheg0.tumblr.com
> 
> Big thanks to Lauren (Tumblr: bisexualclarkgriffin) for proofreading this 20k monster in like one night. And also special thanks to Bec (Tumblr: alycadebnam) for being my Aussie slang guru.
> 
> This story takes place about a year after the events of S1 and what little we've seen of S2. The characters left the sea for the land and have been surviving as best as they can. Until now.

The noises stopped two minutes ago.

Her breathing is labored, heart pounding wildly in her throat as her hands shake, where they’re pressed to her chest. Alicia waits, curled up in a ball in the small closet of the guest bedroom, with the image of her mom frantically pushing her into the room and telling her to hide and be quiet still fresh in her mind.

Someone broke into the house; this modest two-story residence they had come across two nights ago, just outside a small town. One minute they were sitting around the coffee table, hunched over a map of the Los Angeles County and the next someone was kicking the door in and her mom was pushing her upstairs. Now it’s quiet but she hears the murmurs of someone talking outside the house.

Alicia crawls out of the closet and, as silently as she can, peers through a crack in the door. The house is silent. Empty. She grabs her backpack from the foot of the bed and slings it over her shoulder before moving towards the stairs. The rumbling of a car makes her blood freeze. She runs to the living room and pulls aside the curtains of the window that faces the road. There’s a big black pick-up truck pulling into the driveway and two heavily armed men are forcing her family and friends to climb into the back.

Alicia stares with wide eyes, her breath caught in her throat. She wants to scream but she can’t, she’s terrified. One of the men turns around and she crouches, presses her back to the wall and counts to ten. When she looks back outside, hidden partly behind the curtain, she sees the face of one of the men as they drive away, a smile of crooked teeth and beady eyes, skin smeared with three stripes of white paint. 

There’s some hooting and hollering as the driver steps on the gas and the car’s engine roars disappearing down the road. Alicia snaps out of her petrified state long enough to realize what’s happening and runs outside towards the road. The car continues down the same path until she can’t see it anymore. Alicia covers her mouth with her hand and lets out a sob, looking around frantically, trying to find something that could help her undo what has been done, bring her family back to her.

There’s an old car sitting in the driveway, it was there when they first found the house. For a while they tried to get it working but they soon realized it was pointless. Still, Alicia jumps inside and turns the key they found in a bowl in the kitchen. There’s not even a rumble from the engine. She turns and twists it until her fingers hurt and then she starts punching the wheel until her fists are raw.

When she’s run out of anger and adrenaline, she buries her face in her hands and cries.

  

It’s probably been about half an hour and Alicia’s still in the car, her knees to her chest and her cheeks tear streaked. She feels numb. She’s thought of every possible scenario of what could’ve gone differently and what her options are now. Trying to rescue her family is obviously her first thought but it seems like an impossible task and a sure way to get herself killed. She wouldn’t even know where to start; all she has is a face that she’s not forgetting any time soon. But she knows she can’t just do nothing. She might’ve been a bit of a loner back when her life was normal but now, in this fucked up world, she needs her family. If the walkers don’t kill her, loneliness definitely will.

The hard slap on the window of the car makes her heart jump into her throat. Alicia feels her skin crawling and her breath catches at the sight. It’s a big man, maybe a trucker or a construction worker. It doesn’t matter now. His clothes are torn and his jaw slacked, yellow clouded eyes staring straight at her. The walker bangs his fist on the window again and Alicia sees his arm, bloody and dirty with a chunk of flesh missing. The next punch is stronger, it shakes the whole car and the window cracks.

Alicia crawls backwards into the passenger seat, her hands fumbling behind her to open the door. Mind reeling and heartbeat frantic, her flight instinct pulls her out of the car without looking. There are two other walkers on this side of the car and they've all clearly been alerted by the noises of the truck that took her family. One is another man, still several feet away from her, and a woman in a dirty sleeping camisole. The woman springs forward growling at her, teeth snapping as one of her hands claws at her shoulder. Alicia tries to pull away and the walker clutches her backpack strap, tugging at it until she twists to let it go. The walker drops the bag and Alicia stumbles back, the undead following close behind. She runs to the back of the house and curses under her breath when she sees the walkers wandering in the backyard. They notice her immediately and reach their arms out, moans and growls making Alicia’s blood run cold.

She runs toward the back door but trips over the garden hose, scraping her knees and palms pretty badly. She scrambles up as one of the backyard walkers tries to grab her. It seems to be a young, thin woman and she manages to free herself, pushing hard at her shoulder. She sprints for the door. It gives a little resistance when she pushes and those seconds are all it takes for the other backyard walker to reach her. She’s inside the house before he can touch her but his leg and arm have made it into the house, making it impossible to close the door. Alicia pushes with her shoulder, with her whole body. The walker’s hand, with dirt and blood caked under the long nails, claws at her as he repeatedly bumps into the door, forcing it open inch by inch.

Alicia knows the other walkers will soon come to help him. She knows she’s not strong enough to close the door or fight them off. She knows this is probably the end for her and she knows – or at least she thinks – that the motorcycle noise she’s hearing must be a trick her mind is playing on her.

 

She sees the car with the open door first and then the backpack laying on the ground. She parks her motorcycle in the driveway and pushes her aviators up into her hair as she approaches the car. It doesn’t look like much but she thinks there could be some ammo or maybe even a small gun in the bag. Worst case scenario she just got herself a cool new black leather backpack. She’s just thrown it over her shoulder when she hears the growling and what sounds like scared whimpering. It clicks then, what the backpack was doing just laying there on the ground. She hesitates for maybe three seconds before she pulls out the hunting knife from her thigh sheath and runs towards the back of the house.

Elyza Lex might be a bit of an asshole but she’s not about to let someone be eaten alive, not if there’s something she can do to help.

 

Alicia’s feet slip another few inches on the floor. Her brow is glistening with sweat and she’s whimpering, her whole body trembling from the exertion of keeping the walkers out. There’s a growl followed by a strong push, like another walker joined the two at the door, and Alicia falls back on her ass, the door swinging open in front of her. She crawls backwards as the walker towers over her, arms reaching out. He’s about to pounce on her when his noises stop and his whole body goes rigid. Seconds after he’s dropping to the floor in a heap and Alicia stares at the body with wide eyes.

There’s another figure standing at the threshold but she can’t see if it’s friend or foe because they’re standing against the sunlight coming through the door. The figure takes a couple steps into the house and Alicia sees them, _her_ , face curious and maybe a bit worried. Alicia drinks it all in, the blonde hair, the scar above her eyebrow, the inquisitive blue eyes. The stranger is wearing a black leather jacket and there’s a bloody knife gripped tightly in her left hand. Alicia peers behind her and sees the bodies of the other walkers laying in a grotesque pile right outside the door. The woman turns to look at her handiwork, smirking proudly, and even though Alicia knows she owns this person her life, the only thing that comes out of her mouth is:

“That’s my bag.”

The blonde woman cocks her scarred eyebrow amused. “You know, usually people say thank you when someone saves their lives.”

Alicia swallows hard, her mouth still dry from the terrifying experience. “Thank you.” She stands on shaky knees and lifts her chin defiantly. “That’s my bag. Give it back.”

The woman laughs. A glint of silver peeks between her teeth – a piercing. “You’re a mean thing, cutie.” She slips the backpack off her shoulders and dangles it out of Alicia’s reach. “What do I get in return?”

Alicia grinds her teeth together. “Everything I have is in that bag,” she spits.

“How about your name then?”

Alicia’s jaw clenches, clearly not enjoying the exchange as much as the blonde is. She finally says “Alicia. Alicia Clark.”

The blonde smiles like she’s just won some challenge and offers the bag to her. “Elyza.” She replies. “But just so you know, I was going to give it back anyway.”

Alicia snatches it and doesn’t waste a second to check that her dead phone and the rest of her stuff is in it. The stranger ignores her and turns towards the kitchen counters, opening every drawer and cupboard and rummaging through them.

“What are you doing?” Alicia asks.

“I believe it’s called scavenging.”

“There’s nothing here. We already looted the house.”

“We?” The blonde actually stops what she’s doing and turns to her waiting for an answer.

“My family and I." 

“Oh.” The woman frowns and takes a step towards her. “Are they-”

“No,” Alicia cuts her off. “No. They’re alive.”

“Right.” Elyza nods like she understands, like she’s heard it before: people clinging to the idea of their families being still alive out there somewhere. She walks out of the kitchen and into the living room, curious to see if there’s something that could be of use in the house.

“They _are_ ,” Alicia insists, following her into the other room. “They were taken by some- some assholes like an hour ago. I saw it.”

Elyza is scavenging the living room now and making a bit of a mess. At Alicia’s words she tilts her head and looks at her. “And they left you?”

Alicia’s face falls, she looks at the floor in embarrassment and Elyza, not understanding her internal conflict just goes back to the next drawer. There’s a flashlight inside. She clicks it on a few times but it doesn’t turn on, it needs batteries. “Ah, bugger,” she curses under her breath.

“I hid,” Alicia murmurs almost unintelligibly. She clears her throat and repeats “I hid. I watched as they took them away and I hid.”

“Good on ya, cutie.” Elyza says, not looking up from the drawer she’s searching.

Alicia scoffs, suddenly pissed that this stranger is apparently judging her. “Fuck off.”

She looks up then. “I’m serious. It’s the best thing you could’ve done.” She pulls the next two drawers out and dumps the contents on the couch. She spots an opened package of batteries. “You beauty!” She grins at Alicia shaking the package. “Been looking for a torch for a while.” 

Alicia stares at her, anger and hurt written on her face and Elyza realizes the girl is seriously messed up about it. She tries to empathize, it’s been a while since she had to consider anyone else’s feelings but her own. “Look sweetheart, bandits are real cunts and most of the time they’re more dangerous than the walkers, so I’m not judging you for hiding. You did the smart thing." 

Elyza puts the batteries into the flashlight and clicks it on a few times. She looks satisfied with the results. Her wandering eyes stop at the map on the coffee table. She leans down to smooth out the wrinkles. “What did they look like anyway?”

“They were driving a black pick-up truck.” Alicia shrugs. “One of them had like, white paint on his face.”

Elyza’s head snaps up to stare at her, eyes wide and mouth agape. She stays still for two whole seconds and something flashes behind her eyes. Then in the blink of an eye, she’s folding the map and pushing it in her pocket saying “yeah, hiding was your best option.” There’s a strain in her voice but Alicia barely has time to absorb what just happened before Elyza’s out of the room and at the front door, suddenly in a hurry.

“Wha- wait, you know them?” Alicia asks trying to catch up.

Elyza ignores her as she briskly walks towards her vehicle.

“Hey, answer me!” 

“You don’t wanna know.” Elyza unbuckles one of the brown leather, old school saddlebags attached to the sides of her motorcycle and throws the flashlight inside. 

“ _Yeah_ , I do,” Alicia says impatiently. She stops to eye the motorcycle, a small spark of hope flickering in her heart. “Because I _am_ going to get them back and if you know where they are, maybe we can-“

“Okay, listen.” Elyza crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re cute.” She gives her a once over, from her vans, up her scraped knees, jean shorts and colorful loose tank top, to her adorable frowny face. The corner of Elyza’s lip quirks up in a tiny smirk. “You’re _really_ cute. But I value my life way too much to do something as bloody stupid as voluntarily walking into a bandit camp.”

“Please.” Alicia stares at her silently, pleadingly. Elyza drops her arms and starts to turn to mount her motorcycle. Alicia’s heart jumps to her throat. More than the possibility of finding her family, she’s overcome with panic at the idea of being alone again. Elyza might be a bit of an ass, but she did save her life. Alicia grabs her arm almost desperately and pulls her closer. “ _Please._ ”

Elyza stares at her. She sees the pain, the fear, she feels it rolling in waves off of the girl. Her big green eyes are making her resolve waver.

“Please, just- help me find them. We’re strong, resourceful. You can join our group and we’ll protect you. Or- or we’ll give you anything you want, food, ammunition… Just please don’t- don’t just leave.”

Elyza drops her shoulders, letting out a big defeated sigh. She gives it a few seconds, even though she already knows she’s saying yes. “Fine.” Alicia’s lips part in surprise and Elyza can’t help but steal a glance. “Fine, but we do this my way.”

Alicia nods frantically. “Yeah, yeah totally.”

Elyza gives her a look as if to say ‘I’m serious’ and she just knows that this girl will be much more trouble than she’s ready for. She gets on her motorcycle and starts the engine while Alicia just stands there watching, still not believing she convinced this beautiful, slightly annoying stranger to help her look for her family. Not believing she accepted.

“Well, hop on then.”

Alicia straddles the space behind Elyza as gracefully as she can, her hands hovering awkwardly in front of her.

“You’re gonna have to grab onto me, gorgeous,” Elyza says, a smile on her voice.

Alicia snorts. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” She says automatically.

Elyza twists around to look at her, somewhat surprised of what could be considered her flirting back. “I would,” she replies bluntly. “Dead set. But I’m being serious. You can grab my shoulders if you rather. Is this the first time you ride one of these?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I suggest you grab onto _something_ , Black Betty doesn’t mess around.”

“You named your motorcycle.” Alicia deadpans. “Of course you did.”

Elyza doesn’t say anything, just smirks, pulls her aviators back over her eyes and accelerates without giving Alicia any warning. The girl yelps and clutches at Elyza’s shoulders, digging her short nails into the leather. It takes about half a mile before Alicia gives in and slips her arms around Elyza’s waist, fingers gripping the pockets of her jacket.

 

 

The sun is low in the horizon by the time Elyza slows and takes a turn at a dirt path just off the main road. At the end of it it’s an old, wooden barn and she turns off the engine right in front of the large alley doors. Alicia dismounts first, eyeing the building suspiciously.

“Shouldn’t we keep driving? How far are we from the bandit camp?” She asks. 

“We still have a couple days of travel.” Elyza unfastens both saddlebags and slings them over her shoulder. She steps closer to Alicia. “And you were shaking so hard I thought you’d throw me off Betty.” She points at the plaid shirt tied around Alicia’s waist. “Is that just a fashion statement?”

Alicia rolls her eyes but unties the shirt, putting it on and rubbing her arms to get rid of the goose bumps caused by the very windy experience.

“Come on, let’s warm you up,” Elyza says, winking just to aggravate her. Alicia groans, and Elyza laughs openly, showing off her perfect teeth and that tongue piercing.

The double doors are chained and padlocked. Elyza inspects the padlock, roughly the size of a beer can and drops it. They walk around the building until they find a back door with a less intimidating lock. Elyza drops the saddlebags on the ground and pulls two metal picks from the inside pocket of her jacket. She kneels and starts picking the lock with calm precision.

“You’ve done this before?” Alicia asks a little impressed. 

“What, picking a lock or being totally badass?” Elyza hums and then there’s a click and the door opens. Elyza stands, brushing the dirt off her knees and flashing Alicia a megawatt smile. “’Cause yes to both.”

Alicia rolls her eyes again and follows her into the building. Elyza reaches into one of her bags and pulls out the flashlight, carefully inspecting every corner of the place. The floor is soft with dirt and straw and against one of the walls are metal shelves filled with boxes of nails and other tools. There’s a workbench but the wood is already rotting; it probably got wet the last time it rained. Elyza points the flashlight towards the roof and sees the holes where the wood has fallen down. It’s been a long while since someone was here. 

She spots a ladder and she shines the light up to see the small hayloft. She drops her bags next to it. “Hey, cutie? Help me barricade the back door.”

Alicia goes wordlessly and they push one of the shelves in front of the door. Elyza doubts anyone, walker or human, would be curious about this old abandoned barn, but if this new world has taught her anything is that you can never be too cautious. 

Elyza climbs up first with her bags, eyeing the piles of straw with satisfaction and dropping carelessly in one of them, while Alicia sits in another. The wind whistles as it passes through the cracks on the wood panels and Alicia pulls her flannel tighter around her body. The metallic sound of a can opening draws her attention and her mouth waters at the sight before her.

Elyza has pulled a can of something out of her saddlebag, pork and beans if she’s not mistaken, and from where she’s sitting it smells like heaven. Alicia hasn’t eaten since yesterday, when the last four cans of noodle soup her group had were shared between seven people. They had been eight until a few months ago when their friend Victor had been bitten by a walker. He had shown them kindness and saved their lives back when everything started and Alicia learnt that people could still be kind and generous even after the outbreak. She’s still learning that now.

Elyza takes a spoon and starts to eat, glancing at Alicia as she chews on her beans. The girl is staring at her with shiny, hopeful eyes and Elyza puts her can down to rummage through her bag again. She pulls out another can, “Chunky chili?” she asks her reading the label. Alicia swallows a couple times and Elyza sets the can next to her. “Go on, then.”

Alicia scrambles up to sit next to her, not wasting a second to open the can and chug half its contents, barely chewing the meat and beans. Elyza watches amused until Alicia remembers her manners. She chews and swallows and, with a small voice she says “Thanks.”

Elyza smiles kindly. “No worries.” 

They eat the rest in silence. Elyza takes a bottle of water next and offers some to Alicia. The girl shakes her head and reaches inside her backpack, taking her own bottle of water and sipping from it. The night has fallen and it’s peaceful, the silence between them not uncomfortable. Alicia fidgets with her bottle cap. 

“You’re bleeding.”

Alicia snaps her head up. Elyza is staring at her knee where the wound has reopened and a little drop of blood is wet and shiny. “I fell running from the walkers. Before you showed up.”

Elyza hums like she’s considering something. “I reckon I have something…” She puts her saddlebags between her legs and feels the contents until her hand touches what she’s looking for. It’s a small blue toiletry bag but when she unzips it and starts pulling out gauzes, Alicia realizes it’s a makeshift first aid kit.

 “How-? Is there anything you don’t have in those bags?” Alicia asks amused.

Elyza grins at her. “Been driving around with them for a while. I keep anything that seems useful: a couple tools for Betty, some clothes, a pair of binoculars.” She points at the toiletry bag. “ This I found in the glove box of an abandoned sedan.”

The blonde grabs her water bottle and kneels next to Alicia’s legs. She pours some over the wound and then cleans it with a gauze, careful not to hurt her but rubbing off all the dirt. Her touch is featherlike and it amazes Alicia how this abrasive, shameless flirt can be so gentle. She repeats the action on her other knee, then changes the gauze for a clean one and dabs some iodine on them. Alicia hisses when it burns and Elyza mutters “baby” under her breath, flashing her a teasing smile.

Next she puts a beige band-aid over the biggest scrape. She goes to get another from the bag when she sees something that makes her chuckle. She hides it from Alicia who watches her curiously and then Elyza is sticking another band-aid to her other knee, but this one is pale blue and it has SpongeBob’s grinning face on it.

Alicia lets out a soft laugh and rolls her eyes, trying and failing to act like she doesn’t find the whole situation absurdly charming.

“Any other boo-boo you want me to look at?” Elyza asks, voice dripping with innuendo. 

“No, I’m good,” she deadpans. She pushes herself up and into the softest part of the pile of straw. “We should sleep.”

Elyza watches her, making herself comfortable in what is technically her pile. “Oh,” she says, eyebrows up to her hairline.

“I’m cold. We’re supposed to share body heat or whatever,” she explains hastily. She turns on her side, giving her back to Elyza and that seems to be it.

Elyza takes off her combat boots and moves to lay behind her. She inches close enough that Alicia can feel her warmth but doesn’t touch her, not even a hair. One hand is under her head and the other hovers over them for a moment, not sure where to land. Alicia yawns and inches back into Elyza’s body, the blonde’s hand resting on her hip reflexively. She waits for a response and when all she gets is Alicia’s breaths deepening she closes her eyes and falls asleep within the minute.

 

The first one to wake up is Alicia. She furrows her brow and scratches her nose and then she notices the warm body pressed against her back all the way from her shoulders to her ankles. Elyza’s arm is flung around her waist, the tips of her fingers grazing her t-shirt when she moves. She turns her head slightly and not a second later Elyza is sputtering and coughing, turning to lay on her back.

Alicia leans up on her elbows and watches her rubbing her mouth with her hand. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I kind of inhaled some of your hair.” She throws her arms over her head and stretches. Her back arches and she groans and to Alicia it sounds almost obscene. Her breasts push up and her shirt rides up to show a sliver of her stomach. Alicia, mind still clouded with a sleepy haze, stares unabashedly, long enough for Elyza to notice.

Her face grows hot and she looks away embarrassed, but she recovers quickly. “So, what’s the plan today?”

Elyza sits up to put on her boots. “We need petrol. Food. Water too. First we need to make it there and then we’ll think of how we get your family back.”

Alicia nods and goes to stand, but Elyza stops her with a hand on her arm. “Wait.” Elyza pulls another can from her bag and shows it to Alicia. Pineapple slices. “Breakfast first.”

They share the can and Elyza lets her drink the rest of the juice.

 

 

The sun is beating down on them and without a single cloud in sight the asphalt is shimmering heat. Alicia enjoys the wind in her hair, getting progressively more comfortable in a motorcycle as the time passes. She feels good too, hopeful and relaxed in the company of Elyza. Ever since the night before and maybe even since the moment they met, Elyza has been working her way into her heart. A blush blossoms in her cheeks as the memory of that morning slips into her mind. She can’t deny she looked. She stared. And she felt something stirring at the pit of her stomach. Maybe it’s the shameless flirting, charming in its own way, or maybe she feels like she can really trust Elyza. Maybe she knew her in another life. One without the disease that plagues the world now. It’s a nice thought.

She looks down at her arm, at the black ink she put there herself almost a year ago. It seems like a lifetime. Alicia still remembers Matt but it hurts less than it used to. She wonders if he’d like who she had to become to survive.

There’s a car parked up ahead. The driver’s door is open and there’s a dead walker underneath the front. Elyza slows to a stop next to it.

“Keep your eyes open, alright? The driver could still be around,” she says as they approach the vehicle. She checks the backseats and the trunk, left hand resting against her thigh knife. When she finds nothing, Elyza opens one of her saddlebags, pulling out a plastic tube and a small gas can. Alicia’s eyes follow her every move.

Elyza kneels in front of the fuel door, pulling it open, inserting the tube and pushing it in. Then she puts the other end of the tube in her mouth and sucks. Alicia sees the amber liquid come up and rush into her mouth. Elyza pinches the end of the tube and then spits out a mouthful of gasoline. 

“Ew, gross.” Alicia grimaces.

Elyza spits a couple times then puts the end of the tube through the gas can opening, letting the liquid flow. “Aw, will you not kiss me with petrol breath?”

“I won’t kiss you, period.”

“Sure you won’t.”

When the gas can is filled, she pinches the tube again and holds it out to Alicia. “Give me a hand?”

Alicia keeps the tube secure as Elyza empties the gasoline into Betty’s tank. They repeat the process four times, three to dump the fuel and one to keep a full gas can in her bag.

Before getting back on the road, Alicia takes a quick trip to the bathroom – i.e.: the wilderness. When she comes back, the map Elyza took from the house is spread over the hood of the car and the blonde is leaning over it, her index finger running over the paper, following their trajectory. 

“Where to now?” Alicia asks as she stops next to her.

Elyza taps on the map. “The bandits’ camp is here and we should be around… here. I reckon we can be there by tomorrow evo, check the place out first and then think of a plan.”

Alicia nods and a thought pops into her head. “How do you know where their camp is?”

Elyza doesn’t answer at first. She folds the map, slowly and carefully and considers what she wants to say. “I’ve encountered them before. I overheard them talking about the camp, giving someone directions.” 

“Oh,” Alicia says. “Did you hide too?”

“Something like that,” Elyza says with finality. She jumps on her motorcycle and waits for Alicia to climb behind her. It feels like there’s more to the story but Alicia understands that in this new, ruthless world there are things you just don’t talk about. Things you want to forget.

 

 

Their next stop is a motel just off the main road. The sign reads _Sherwood Motel, 45$/night – Diner open 24/7._ They leave Betty at the parking lot, taking note of the few cars they should probably loot later. The sound of growling and shuffling footsteps draws their attention and they turn to see four walkers coming from around the building, probably alerted by the sound of the motorcycle. Elyza steps in front of Alicia.

“Alright, gorgeous, stay behind me. I’m gonna kick some major arse.”

Alicia panics. “Okay, no. There’s four of them and two of us and I’m kinda useless if you didn’t notice when you had to step in and save my life!”

Elyza ignores her, grabbing the front of the first walker’s t-shirt. She pushes the knife into his head through his temple, swift and hard and throws the body away to catch the second walker who’s already pouncing on her. This one is shorter than her and she stabs the knife into the top of her head. The other two are slower so she approaches the lanky, tall boy first. He has an apron tied around his waist and Elyza thinks he must’ve worked at the diner. She pushes her forearm against his collarbones. He snaps his mouth at her, lips non-existent and teeth dark red. There’s a piece of flesh stuck between them and Elyza grimaces. She sticks the knife under his jaw and pushes it up into his brain. He drops, body limp and heavy and she doesn’t have time to dislodge the knife before the other walker reaches her.

“Fuck!” She exclaims as she pulls on the knife. “You fucking bastard-“

“Elyza!” Alicia screams. She turns in time to catch the walker before he grabs her but she trips on the corpse of the walker with the knife still lodged into his jaw and falls to the ground, the rabid man with bloodshot eyes falling on top of her. She tries to fight him off, pushing at his shoulders as he growls at her, breathing his putrid breath on her face. And then the weight is lifted and he falls to the side where Alicia has pushed him. Elyza doesn’t have time to thank her or praise her good timing. She rips the knife out of the corpse’s skull and jumps on the walker before he can stand up, driving the knife between his eyes with all her strength. 

He stops moving and she drops her shoulders, trying to get her breathing back to normal.

 “Oh God, are you okay? Did he- did you get-?” Alicia stammers.

Elyza smiles, still panting, and shows off her arms and neck. Her skin is intact. “I’m good, see?”

“Oh thank God.” Alicia holds out her arm to help her up and Elyza grabs her forearm to stand in front of her.

“Aw, you worry about me,” she affirms, knowing it’s the truth and wanting to tease her about it.

“Yeah, well,” Alicia replies, dropping her arm and shuffling back. “You saved my life, I saved yours. I guess we’re even.”

Elyza smirks. “I guess we are.” 

 

They make their way to the diner first, Elyza with her knife at the ready and Alicia close behind her. There’s some broken glass on the floor, dirt all over the tables and a dry pool of blood where someone was probably bitten. One of the members of the welcoming committee from the parking lot, no doubt. There’s not much in the kitchen, some sacks of flour and a few bulk bags of rotting oranges. Alicia opens the door of the walk in fridge and closes it immediately when the smell of rotting meat fills her nostrils.

“Eugh.” She puts her hand over her mouth to fight the urge to heave.

Elyza moves to the end of the room where a door is ajar. She peers inside it first and then pulls it open all the way. “Well I’ll be stuffed,” she says with a grin.

When Alicia sees the inside of the room she smiles too. “That’s way more than we can carry.”

“It’s alright. We’ll take what we can.”

It’s a long room, with three rows of shelves full of cans of beans, beef, chicken, soups, pasta, bags of rice and sugar, bottles of syrup and honey and also bottles of water, bags of chips and crackers, jars of peanut butter and a long, long etcetera. Alicia immediately throws one of the jars in her bag – crunchy, of course. 

“Alicia, they got lollies!” Elyza exclaims, hands full of red, heart-shaped lollipops she’s picked from a box. She fills her pockets with the candy and Alicia watches her, amused. Elyza rips the plastic wrapper from one and sucks on it with delight. 

“So I guess you got everything you wanted?”

“Mhm,” Elyza replies, lips still pursed around the plastic stick. She lets it go with a pop and her lips are red like a cherry. “Let’s go get my bags and loot this motha.” 

 

The bags are full and they carry four more cans in their arms, ready to have an amazing dinner tonight. Elyza is trying to choose between a can of baby potatoes and a can of apricot halves when Alicia hears the glass crunching.

She crouches and whispers frantically at Elyza. “Elyza, did you hear that?”

Elyza takes the potatoes and runs to her side. “What?”

“Footsteps. Someone stepped over the glass outside.”

And then they hear humming. A melodious and very human humming. Definitely not a walker, but they could still be trouble. Elyza puts her cans down and takes the knife out, moving to stand next to the kitchen door. When the person comes into the room she jumps behind him and puts the knife to his throat.

“Woah, woah, what- take it easy,” the man says. He’s a handsome black man, taller than Elyza by a couple heads and Alicia is sure that if he wanted to he could take them both. “Look, I want no trouble. You can take anything you want from the storage room.”

“Tell me one good reason why I should believe you,” Elyza demands.

He looks at Alicia, his hands raised in the air. “Okay, okay… My name is Tom. My wife and I have been staying here for a while. I have a kid. I was an accountant. I don’t know how to fight. I don’t even like watching football, it’s too aggressive. Um, your friend there looks like a nice person and I’m kinda hoping you are too ‘cause I’m fond of my head being attached to my neck.”

Elyza glances at Alicia around Tom’s shoulder and she nods at her to let him go. Elyza moves away from him, knife still held tightly in her hand. He rubs at his neck and smiles kindly at them. “Thank you.”

 Elyza puts her knife back in its sheath. “Sorry about that, mate. These days you never who…”

“Yeah. I get it. My wife and I have been here for about three weeks now and it’s been pretty uneventful apart from the occasional walker stumbling around the parking lot. But before this we were on the road…” He crosses his arms and purses his lips. “Our car broke down so I was trying to fix it. This caravan car approached and stopped next to us. They seemed friendly, talked about their destination and other trivial things. One man said he would help me with the car and the next thing I know I’m staring down the barrel of a shotgun. They robbed us blind.”

“Sons of bitches,” Alicia grumbles making him raise his eyebrows in amusement. “Did they have white paint on their faces?”

“No, nothing weird like that,” Tom says. “They just looked like normal white people, the kind you would never guess have criminal tendencies. Guess some things haven’t changed, uh?”

The girls chuckle at that.

“So, if you girls don’t mind,” he points towards the storage room. “I came here to get some dinner for my family…”

 “Oh, yeah, go ahead,” Alicia says. “It’s _your_ food.”

Tom keeps talking from inside the storage room. “Well it’s not really ours, but no one else is eating it so we take what we need each day. We’re staying in one of the rooms of the motel, you should come have dinner with us.” He walks back into the kitchen with two cans of beef stew and one of chicken noodles. He looks at them questioningly.

Alicia turns to her friend who just shrugs so she says “Yeah, sure. That’d be nice.”

 

The room is bathed in the yellow light of a couple candles spread out here and there. The front window is covered in newspapers, probably so the light can’t be seen from the road. The two beds have been pushed together and it all makes it seem almost cozy. Elyza drops her bags as she takes it all in.

Tom’s wife is just as kind as him. Her name is Aubrey and she offers them tea – tea! In the apocalypse! It’s cold tea, but still – when they introduce themselves. The little boy’s name is Noah and he peers up at them from behind her mother’s legs with big round eyes and a head full of dark curls, just like Aubrey’s.

“Hi, Noah” Alicia waves and kneels in front of him. “How old are you? I’m eighteen.”

He shows her four fingers and her mother ruffles his hair, chuckling a little. “He’s five. He just forgets because we didn’t have a big party this year,” Aubrey explains sadly.

“Oh, hey, do you wanna see something cool?” Alicia rummages through her bag and Elyza leaves her side to join Tom at the small kitchenette. She’s really bad with kids and Alicia seems to be an expert. It surprises her a little, what with the whole grumpy teenager vibe she gives. But she’s starting to realize there are many sides to this girl. 

Tom is opening the cans and pouring the stew into bowls. He smiles at her. “We have more bowls if you wanted them.”

“Oh, no, we’re good.” He puts a spoon in each bowl and Elyza gets an idea. “Actually my friend could use a spoon, we kind of only have one.” 

Tom opens a drawer and pulls out a spoon. “Done and done.” He picks up two bowls, stew and chicken soup and announces that dinner is ready. Noah looks up from where he’s playing Cat’s Cradle with Alicia using the cord of her earbuds – and at _that_ Elyza has to laugh – and runs to sit in one of the two chairs in the tiny table of the kitchenette. Tom puts Noah’s bowl in front of him and brings the other to his wife.

Elyza sits next to Alicia on the bed, where she’s putting her earbuds back into her backpack. Elyza picks up her can of baby potatoes and opens it picking one with her fingers. Alicia chooses another can of beef stew because Aubrey’s bowl smells really good. Before she can bring the can to her mouth Elyza stops her. “Oh hey, I’ve got a gift for you.” 

She shows her the spoon and Alicia laughs. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, cutie.” 

They make small talk with Tom and Aubrey; or at least they try. As soon as Aubrey asks where they are headed the conversation turns a lot more serious. They are appalled to find out what happened to Alicia’s family and assure them that they will be on the look out for people with white paint on their faces. After they’re finished they have some cold tea and listen to Tom and Aubrey talk about their lives before the outbreak, how they met and how both their families freaked out when they found out Aubrey was the one to ask Tom to marry her.

By the time Alicia’s cup is empty, Noah’s rubbing his eyes, trying to stay awake with these exciting new people but getting sleepier by the moment. The girls say their goodnights and promise to stop by tomorrow before they hit the road again. Tom insists on walking them to their room – any room they want, really – because he took the master key from the front desk a while back. Elyza wants to tell him it’s not necessary, that she can pick locks, but she’s so exhausted she just accepts this man’s infinite kindness. 

“May I suggest room number 211? It has a great view of the pool, which is green and disgusting but I’m sure at one point was clean. Ish.”

Alicia chuckles. “Sure, 211 sounds good.”

Tom bids them goodnight and closes the door behind him, leaving them almost in complete darkness. The light of the moon coming through the window helps them find the beds easily. Elyza drops her bags at the foot of the bed and takes off her boots and jacket as soon as she sits down. She doesn’t wait any longer, pulling back the covers to slip inside.

“Oh God, a real bed,” Elyza moans as she snuggles into the pillow.

Alicia copies her, taking her shoes and flannel shirt off and slipping into the other bed. It’s not the best mattress she’s ever tried but at the moment it feels like a cloud. “Goodnight,” she says quietly. Elyza mumbles something back that sounds a lot like “Goodnight.”

Ten minutes later, Alicia lays wide awake, tossing and turning as her mind reels with possibilities, regrets and fears. What if they can’t rescue her family? What if it’s already too late? What if Elyza decides she’s not worth the trouble and leaves? And what if she hadn’t stayed hidden like a coward as the bandits dragged the people she loves away? Would it have made a difference? Can she make a difference now? She rolls onto her back and sighs loudly. “Elyza?” There’s no answer. “Can I- would you mind-“

Elyza’s mattress creaks as the girl inches towards the wall, holding the covers up behind her. Alicia sees the gesture in the semi-darkness and crawls out of her bed and into Elyza’s.

“Is this weird?” Alicia whispers.

“Shut up and sleep,” Elyza mumbles as an answer. So Alicia cuddles up to her, feeling her muscles relax and her mind go blank.

 

 

This time Elyza wakes up first, trying to turn on her back and kind of hitting Alicia in the face with her elbow. “Oh fuck, bugger, I’m sorry,” she rasps, eyes still bleary with sleep. Alicia blinks awake, confused and disoriented and brings her hand up to her nose.

“Ow,” She mumbles.

“I’m sorry,” Elyza repeats. She brushes her fingers over Alicia’s cheekbone. “You alright?”

Alicia drops her hand and lets her caress the pain away. “I’m fine.”

“Funny how we keep trying to injure each other in the morning,” she jokes remembering her coughing fit from yesterday.

Alicia gives her a lazy smile, eyes half-lidded as Elyza continues to rub her thumb over her cheek. The blonde stops, fingertip right at the corner of her lips. She’s looking straight at her mouth and Alicia is suddenly very awake. They stay like that for a long minute, staring at each other and both very aware of what’s happening. But Elyza won’t kiss her, won’t make the first move. She will wait until this beautiful girl knows exactly what she wants and she will be there to give it to her when it happens.

Alicia’s stomach gurgles and Elyza breaks the staring contest, a little teasing smile on her lips. Alicia blushes and rolls onto her back, the moment ruined.

“Breakfast?” Elyza asks.

“Yeah,” Alicia says. “I’m gonna freshen up or something.” She picks her backpack and goes into the bathroom. There are two little, sad bars of soap next to the sink but they’re unopened and to Alicia they look – and smell – like heaven. She takes her clothes off and gets in the shower. Figuring they can just take another bottle from the storage room, she uses all her water to clean the most crucial parts of her body and then she puts on the only other pair of underwear she has, which is thankfully clean. She stuffs the underwear she was wearing in the small pocket of her bag and makes a mental note to clean it later, at some point.

When she comes out of the bathroom Elyza is waiting for her with a can of fruit cocktail and a bottle of honey. She sits next to her and digs in.

“You smell good,” Elyza comments.

“I took a _shower_ ,” she makes quotation marks with her fingers at the word “with my water and a bar of soap that I found in the bathroom. There’s another one if you want it.”

Elyza licks the sweet honey from her spoon before asking “Are you saying I smell bad?”

“I’m saying I feel a lot better with clean armpits and new underwear.”

Elyza tilts her head at that. “Now _that_ is interesting information.”

Alicia snorts and knocks her shoulder with Elyza’s. “Shut up.”

Elyza ends up taking her bags into the bathroom with her and moments later, Alicia hears the water splashing onto the shower floor. The blonde comes out of the bathroom in a new t-shirt, a white one instead of the blue she was wearing, and smelling of soap.

“Ready?” She asks Alicia who just nods.

 

They get new water bottles first and then Elyza stops by the parking lot to search the few cars and see if there’s something useful. She finds a box of orange tic tacs in the white Polo and pops one into her mouth. There’re cigarette butts in the car’s ashtray and she silently prays that the owner of the car left a pack of them around. She has no luck and thinks maybe it’s a sign from God telling her to quit the horrible habit. She hasn’t smoked in almost a month so it’s looking more like a real possibility every day.

Still, old habits die hard. “Oi, Alicia!” The girl looks up from the car she’s searching. “If you find a pack of fags please keep it for me?”

“A pack of what?” 

“Cigarettes,” Elyza sighs, knowing the girl is smart enough to understand. Alicia acts like she hasn’t heard her. “Is there anything specific you want?” 

Alicia pauses. “A pair of jeans would be nice.”

They go back to their tasks. Alicia moves to the next car, a blue pick-up truck. There’s a sports bag in the bed of the truck and she drops it on the ground to inspect it. Inside there are dirty sport clothes, sweatpants, a pair of boxers that make her gag and a baseball glove. That draws her attention and she buries her hand deeper until she touches something hard and long. It’s a baseball bat. The handle is black and the rest is pale brown wood. She swings it around, remembering her softball days when she was still in middle school.

“What’ve you got there?” Elyza drawls from behind her. She has a pair of washed blue jeans in her hands.

Alicia twirls the bat around, liking the feel of it on her palms. “My weapon of choice,” she says confidently. “Thoughts?”

Elyza eyes her up and down and she clearly likes what she sees. “Many. Not one of them innocent.” 

As expected, Alicia gives her an eye roll and pushes her away with the end of the bat. Elyza throws the jeans at her with a laugh. “Red car with the Vote Romney sticker has a suitcase full of clothes.” Alicia grimaces and Elyza walks away mumbling about “bloody yanks.” Alicia jumps into the passenger seat of the truck and changes quickly. The jeans are a little short on her, barely gracing her ankles, but they’ll do. 

They finish scavenging the cars and move to the front desk. Some drawers are pulled out but Elyza guesses it must’ve been Tom looking for the master key so the place is still worth a look. She starts from one side of the room while Alicia takes the other. Minutes later, Alicia lets out a laugh and Elyza looks up just in time to catch what the girl has thrown her way. 

“There, enjoy your cancer sticks.”

It’s a wrinkled package of Winston. There are three cigarettes inside and one of them is broken. She looks up at Alicia who seems to be done searching the place and is now watching her. Elyza takes a deep breath and makes up her mind. She crushes the package between her hands, making it into a ball and throws it back at Alicia. The girl has to duck to avoid being hit in the head and stares at her like she’s lost her mind. She just shrugs and says “I’m done.”

As promised, they stop by Tom and Aubrey’s room before they leave the motel. They hug and wish each other good luck. Noah seems to be especially sad that Alicia’s leaving. Elyza totally gets it.

 The family watches them from the balcony of their floor as they get on the motorcycle.

“They’ll be alright,” Alicia says although it sounds a lot like a question. 

“Yeah,” Elyza assures her. “They will.”

 

 

They stop twice along the way, once to eat lunch and another when the road takes them to the borders of a forest and starts guiding them north. Elyza knows they’re getting close. Ten miles later she slows to a stop; a smoke column can be seen from the road and she’s sure they’ve arrived.

“Let’s find higher ground.”

Elyza takes her binoculars from her bag after they park Betty behind a bush. It’s a short walk to the top of the hill. They crouch behind a rock and drink it all in.

The first thing Elyza notices is that they have no walls up. Maybe they trust they’re deep enough into the woods for anyone to find them or maybe they are just that arrogant. The camp is composed of one rectangular building, made of wood and stone, like some kind of rustic lodge, and two smaller ones, one of them is a medium sized shed and the other is a makeshift watchtower, not too high, but high enough to see every walker and human approach at a fair distance. Hammered into the front of the tower is a sign that reads “ _Trader’s End_.”

Elyza counts four cars, two pick-up trucks, a beige jeep and a black minivan. There’s a man standing on the watchtower, an automatic rifle hanging from his shoulder and a smear of white paint under his eyes and across his nose. Other people are walking around the camp. A man and a woman carry a dead deer from the back of a pick-up truck to the main building. A few others sit around a picnic table, drinking and laughing boisterously. A bald muscular man walks out of the main building and yells something at them. They scramble up and into the building. There’s another clearing further into the woods behind the camp, where the land descends. It seems to be connected to the main area by a steep path. In it there are two metallic shipping containers, one red and one green. Both are chained and padlocked. Elyza passes the binoculars to Alicia.

“I think your family might be in there.” She guides Alicia’s line of sight towards the shipping containers. Alicia’s heart skips a beat; she is so close now.

“How are we gonna get them out?” She puts the binoculars down and looks at Elyza with so much sadness and desperation that it makes the blonde’s heart ache. “It seems impossible." 

“It’s not, okay?” She grabs Alicia’s hands and makes sure she has all of her attention. “We just need to take out the watchtower guard and then-“

“Then what? We can’t take out a whole camp of armed people!”

“We’ll find a way,” Elyza says firmly. “Trust me.”

And Alicia realizes she does. 

They watch for a while longer, until the sun starts to set. The binoculars are passed back and forth until Elyza sees a very interesting exchange. “There,” she says pointing at the watchtower. The man is jumping down and greeting another guy. They talk for a while and then the new guy takes on the task of keeping watch. “Guard’s shift ends at sundown. That’s when we get them.”

It’s not much, but it’s a first step. A step closer. 

“It’ll be dark soon, we need to find a place to sleep tonight. We’ll think of a plan, get everything we need in the morning and we’ll come back before the sun sets.”

Alicia watches the containers through the binoculars one last time. “Yeah, okay.” 

The walk back to the motorcycle is brisk and silent. “I think… we passed a sign like seven miles ago that said something like ‘National Forest Campgrounds’.”

“We did?” 

“Yeah. Maybe there’s a tent or something. We’re kind in the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s worth a look.”

They drive back to the entrance of the Campgrounds and it’s Alicia who sees the map board standing at the side of the path. It has a ‘you are here’ mark and a green shape that contains the actual camping grounds. But a small blue rectangle is what really draws her attention.

“Anything interesting?” Elyza asks from the motorcycle. 

“Park ranger cabin,” she reads out loud.

“Can you see how to get there?”

“Yeah, it’s just around the corner.”

“Let’s go then, before it gets too dark.”

 

The cabin is very modest; it has only two rooms. What could be considered the living room has a table, two chairs, a tattered but clean loveseat and an old fashioned wood burning stove. There are rugs on the floor and a small counter with some drawers. On top of it there’s a roll of paper towels, a gas lantern and a tin cup. The walls have maps and pictures of the different points of interest in the surrounding area. There’s a calendar from last year and a board with barely visible messages the rangers must’ve left each other. The other room has a full sized bed, a pile of blankets and not much else.

They drop their bags on the floor of the living room and take it all in. Alicia drops onto the couch and picks at a frayed hole in the cushion while Elyza sits in the wooden chair a couple feet from her. She puts her head in her hands and they sit in silence for a while.

“Before we make a decision, there’s something you should know about these bandits… about me.”

Alicia’s heartbeat quickens. She sits up straighter to show her she’s listening.

“A while ago, I was with this group. They seemed like good people at first, I reckon some of them were. But there was this bloke, we just called him Boss, he was like the leader of the group. Everything he said, everything he asked for, we did without question. He used to be a bikie, travelled around in this beautiful motorcycle while we followed with cars and minivans. This one time we stopped at a small town. We found another group, much smaller than ours. They weren’t armed like us either. It was just a couple families, uhm…” Elyza stares at the ceiling and takes a deep breath, like she’s trying to keep her emotions in check, “Two kids.”

Alicia inches forward on the cushion so if she reaches her hand out she’d be able to touch Elyza.

“We stayed for three days in that town and I got to know some of them. They were good people, like Tom and Aubrey. Just trying to survive. The bandits came on day three. Utes, painted faces, it’s hard to forget about them.” Elyza looks up at her friend who just nods encouragingly. “They were armed but so were we, so we found ourselves in the middle of a standoff. And so the Boss tried to reason with them. And the bandits asked…”

Elyza trails off, a pained expression on her face.

“Go on,” Alicia says softly.

“I don’t want you to hate me.”

Alicia frowns. “I’m not gonna hate you.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“Yes, I do. You saved my life. You’re helping me rescue my family. I’m not gonna hate you.” Alicia reaches over and puts her hands over Elyza’s fidgety ones. “Trust me.”

Elyza takes a deep breath. “They said all they wanted was a few people. The unarmed group. They had been watching them and they had come to take them.”

Alicia shakes her head confused. “Take them where? For what?”

“Human trafficking,” Elyza says quietly, so quietly Alicia almost misses it. “They trade people for food, ammo, weapons… I don’t- I’m not sure who they’re trading with or what those people do with the prisoners… maybe they use them as slaves or bait or-“

“Stop! Stop.” Alicia holds her hands in front of her, feeling the panic set in as she thinks of her family. “Please.”

 Elyza takes her hands again, gently, and rubs her thumbs over her knuckles. “You need to know what kind of people we’re dealing with because we have two options here: we can either try to rescue your family and escape without being noticed, which would mean we’re letting these bastards roam free and continue kidnapping people.”

“Or?”

“Or we kill them all.”

Alicia falls silent. She pulls her hands away from Elyza’s grasp and sits back.

“Your group let the Traders take all those defenseless people away.”

“Yes,” Elyza rasps. She swallows a lump in her throat. “We did. I tried to reason with our leader but in the end it didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter now. I sat there and watched the Traders tie ropes around their wrists and drag them by force. The kids were crying. I-“ Elyza takes a shuddering breath and her eyes cloud with tears. “The Boss, he was just chatting amicably with the bandit’s leader. That’s when I overheard him give directions to ‘Trader’s End’. He was offering an exchange, saying he could cut him a good deal for all the help. I don’t know if the Boss seriously considered it or not but at that moment I knew I had to leave.” 

Elyza brushes away a stray tear and wipes her hands on her black jeans. “That night I waited until he was off his face on booze – as he did every night, that fucking wanker, soulless, piece of shite.” Elyza balls her hands into fists, knuckles white. “I took the keys of his motorcycle from his vest pocket, some provisions to last me a few days and I drove away.” 

“That’s how you got Betty?”

“Yeah.” Elyza glances outside the cabin window where Betty’s parked under a tree. “And now you know everything.”

Alicia stares at her silently for a long while. Elyza’s expression is open and vulnerable, even a little resigned, like she’s waiting for Alicia to tell her she’s a terrible person. Instead, Alicia leans her elbows on her knees and her eyes shine with a fiery confidence.

“So, how are we gonna kill these Traders?”

A smile pulls at Elyza’s lips and a huge weight lifts from her chest. “I’m thinking fire.”

  

Dinner is warm for once, thanks to the burning wood stove in the cabin. Elyza uses the cast iron tongs to hold the can of chili with beans over the embers first, then another of mushroom cream. They talk about the plan as they eat, making a mental list of everything they need to get in the morning.

“Well, I’m knackered.”

“Yeah,” Alicia agrees, making her way to the bedroom.

“I’ll uh… sleep here,” Elyza stammers pointing at the loveseat. Alicia stops and looks at her questioningly. Then she seems to understand and rolls her eyes.

“Don’t do that.” Elyza doesn’t know what to say to that. Alicia grabs her by the hand pulls her into the bedroom.

Later, Elyza lays on her back and Alicia on her side, watching her stare intently at the ceiling. She curls her hand around the blonde’s biceps and whispers “you’re not a bad person.”

Elyza reaches up and takes Alicia’s hand between hers, resting them on her stomach. The sound of Elyza’s breathing lulls her to sleep.

 

 

It takes Elyza hours to fall asleep that night and she tosses and turns, trying not to bother Alicia too much. She finally falls asleep around two in the morning, face buried into the pillow and an arm slung over Alicia’s torso. Around seven, Alicia feels nature’s calling and she slips out of the bed and into the cool air of the morning.

“Where you goin’?” Elyza mumbles without moving an inch, face still squished by the pillow. 

“Gotta pee,” Alicia replies, slipping into her vans. “You sleep.”

Alicia takes some paper towels from the counter and walks out of the cabin. The birds are chirping and the air smells like pine needles. She walks a bit further into the woods until she finds a spot she likes behind a tall bush. When she’s done Alicia pulls up her jeans and starts to button them. The growling catches her completely off guard and she barely has time to react as the walker creeps through the bushes and towards her. 

“Fuck!” Alicia stumbles a couple steps backwards, her back knocking against a tree. “Shit, fuck.” She runs towards the general direction of the cabin, confused in her panic haze. The walker is a new one, a woman that would look perfectly normal if it wasn’t for the bloodshot eyes and the lurching movements. She’s also fast, catching up with Alicia by the time she’s found the cabin. 

“Elyza?!” She calls from the living room. She finds her backpack and pulls the baseball bat out as the walker comes into the room. The undead woman looks around the room, growling softly until her clouded eyes find Alicia’s. “Elyza!”

At her scream, the walker lurches forward and purely on instinct Alicia swings her bat as hard as she can against her head. The loud clang resonates in her ears and when the walker drops to the floor she feels like she just hit a home run.

“Hey, whu-“ Elyza finally walks into the living room, her hair a mess and her t-shirt wrinkled. She’s rubbing her eye when she sees the walker on the floor and Alicia still holding the bat. Slowly the pieces fall together and she starts to smile. “What was that you said, about being kinda useless?” 

Alicia drops the bat and strides towards her, eyes frantic. Elyza thinks she’s gonna slap her for not coming to her help earlier, or maybe have a complete meltdown. But instead Alicia grabs the back of her neck and pulls her forward until she captures her mouth in a kiss. Elyza’s eyebrows fly up to her hairline in surprise, but soon the passionate, almost desperate way Alicia kisses her has her melting into her arms.

Alicia is relentless, pressing their lips together again and again, tilting her head and sucking Elyza’s lip, leaving the blonde a little overwhelmed. Alicia pushes her over to the loveseat and straddles her, grabbing her head with both hands to kiss her deeply. Elyza has her hands on Alicia’s waist and she drags them over her back, pressing the girl into her body. Alicia lets out a small breathy moan, tongue flicking to lick at Elyza’s parted lips. Elyza wants nothing more than to continue kissing this girl for all of eternity but there’s something bothering her.

“Wait, wait,” she says in between kisses. Alicia frowns, nose rubbing over Elyza’s as her eyes stay fixated on those delectable lips. Elyza gives her a small, gentle kiss and pulls back a little. “This is weird.”

Alicia recoils, eyes wide with worry. “I-“

“No, no, no, not _this_ , this,” Elyza hurries to explain, gesturing between them. She leans back in, kissing Alicia on the corner of her mouth, then her cheek and her jaw. “This is good,” she says close to her ear. “This is ripper.”

Alicia chuckles into the mess of blonde hair.

“I was talking about that, though.” Elyza’s looking at the other corner of the room and Alicia turns to see the body of the walker slumped at an awkward angle. Alicia grimaces before she starts chuckling.

“I forgot about that.”

Elyza cocks her eyebrow, “I wonder why.”

Alicia grins at her, grabs her chin and plants two quick kisses on her lips before she gets off her lap. “Arms or legs?”

“I get the arms, you get the legs.”

They carry the body outside and drop it by the woods. Back in the cabin, Alicia picks up her bat and some paper towels, rubbing the blood and brain matter from the wood. Elyza sits on the table and watches her. With her bat good as new, Alicia moves to stand between Elyza’s legs. She brushes her fingers through Elyza’s wild blonde hair. “You desperately need a brush,” she says, not unkindly. 

Elyza just hums, enjoying the feeling of Alicia’s fingers against her scalp. She wraps her arms around Alicia’s waist, letting her forehead drop to the girl’s shoulder. Alicia hugs Elyza’s body closer until they’re holding each other. Alicia sighs, perfectly content in their little bubble for a precious moment. She’s not thinking about her family, about bandits or walkers. All she feels is the warmth, the softness of Elyza’s cotton shirt against her cheek, her breath on Alicia’s collarbone. A feeling of peace, of completion, settles deep in her chest and she’s not sure what to make of that. But Elyza feels it too and she knows, she understands that in a way, they have both found something they didn’t know they were missing. 

Alicia finally breaks the bubble. “We should get ready for tonight.”

Elyza sighs deeply before sitting up. “Right. We need to find a servo,” she says, remembering the steps of the plan.

“Or a few cars, but preferably that.”

“But we need to get some containers first.”

“To carry the gas,” Alicia clarifies.

“Yep, ‘cause we’re gonna need a lot.”

“And we need to get the matches from the stove.”

“And that’s it,” Elyza concludes. 

“Do you think it’s too easy?” Alicia asks. 

“Well, you know, the simplest solution is usually the right one.”

“Occam’s razor…” Alicia adds, eyes squinting as she thinks about it.

Elyza seems pleasantly surprised, lips parting slightly.

“What? I’m smart. I got into Berkeley,” Alicia says defensively.

Elyza hums, leaning down to hover her lips over Alicia’s. “That’s hot.”

Alicia scoffs, a slight blush on her cheeks as she steps away. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Elyza says, jumping down from the table. “I’ve just got one question and then we can go.”

Alicia crosses her arms, not knowing what to expect.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but, didn’t you say like, less than 48 hours ago that you weren’t going to kiss me?”

“Yeah, well,” she shrugs. “I lied.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

They have to drive back about 50 miles to find a small suburban neighborhood with a pump station. They fill up enough gas cans that it becomes a real challenge to carry them all back, so they have to take two trips. It takes up the whole morning but they manage to find what they need. After a quick break for lunch, they repeat the process of transporting the cans but closer to the bandit camp this time. Once that’s done they climb the hill with the perfect view of Trader’s End and observe them for a while. Today there’re a lot more people gathered in the courtyard. They form a circle, some are sitting in picnic chairs, others stand around, gesturing wildly and yelling at something. Some _one_ , Alicia notices, as she points the binoculars towards the center of the circle.

Two men are fighting each other, viciously trying to take the other down with fists and elbows and knees. Both are bloody and bruised but one of them seems to have the upper hand. The bandits cheer for him and he delivers a brutal punch to the battered man’s face. He drops to the ground and the bandits go crazy. The same bald man from yesterday is there too. He approaches the victor and throws him a paper bag. The man opens the bag with a frantic urgency, taking a piece of dried meat and swallowing it whole.

The bald man pats his back, looking friendly for a moment. Then he pushes the man towards the small clearing with the shipping containers. Two armed men accompany them. The bald man takes a key chain from around his neck and opens the container. The armed men point their guns at whoever’s inside as the bald man pushes the winner of the fight in, with his bag of dried meat. Alicia desperately tries to see inside the container, tries to get a glimpse of her family, but it’s dark inside and no one seems to dare to approach the door.

The bald man puts the key chain back under his shirt and goes to join his men at the courtyard. Alicia puts the binoculars down and recounts everything she’s seen to Elyza. “I can’t wait for these fuckers to burn.”

 

The sun is still high when they make their way down, so they drive to the cabin to wait for sundown. With hours to spare, Alicia uses the paper towels and a pen she finds in one the drawers to sketch a couple rough blueprints of Trader’s End. She studies them, trying to figure out the fastest and most effective way to distribute the gasoline around the main building. They need to make sure to cover the entrances so no one can escape once the fire starts. It will be the perfect trap.

Meanwhile Elyza sits on the loveseat, completely bored out of her mind. She unwraps one of her lollipops, throwing the plastic up in the air and hitting it like a ball. Alicia looks up at the noise.

“Isn’t that like your third one today?”

Elyza doesn’t reply, sucking eagerly on her candy, lips already turning red. “I like sweets.” 

“You have a sugar addiction,” Alicia argues. 

“Well, if you won’t give me any…” Elyza trails off with a pout, a smirk hiding in her eyes.

Alicia rolls her eyes at the line, but she abandons her drawings and goes to sit next to Elyza. She pecks her on the lips before she lays down and puts her head on Elyza’s lap, her legs dangling over the armrest of the loveseat. Elyza watches her, twirling her lollipop in her mouth. She lets it go with a pop and offers it to Alicia. The girl accepts it. They pass the candy back and forth until it’s finished. Elyza thinks Alicia might be right about her addiction because she immediately wants another one. It must be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. She focuses her attention on the girl instead.

Alicia has her left arm raised and is trailing her fingers over a rough tattoo of a squiggly spiral. Elyza’s seen it before but she never thought much of it.

“What’s it mean?”

Alicia glances up at her before dropping her eyes back to the tattoo. “I got it for someone I cared about a lot… someone from before the outbreak.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Matt,” she affirms. “We were going to graduate together. We had plans for college.” She pauses. “He was bitten when it all started. It feels like it was a long time ago.”

Alicia doesn’t seem to be heartbroken over it anymore, just a little nostalgic.

Elyza puts her hand over Alicia’s, intertwining their fingers together. She tries to think of something that will cheer her up. “Ah, so you went from the high school sweetheart to a sexy older woman.”

Alicia snorts, looking up at her like she’s ridiculous. “Please, you’re like twenty-three.” 

Elyza gasps. “I’m twenty-two!”

“My point exactly.”

Elyza hums noncommittally, thumb rubbing over Alicia’s knuckle.

“What about you? Did you leave a trail of broken hearts before the world went to shit?” Alicia asks teasingly.

“Not really.” Alicia seems surprised so Elyza elaborates. “The girls I slept with, they weren’t looking for a relationship. Neither was I. No commitment means no broken hearts.”

“Ah, so you’re one of those people.”

“Was,” Elyza corrects without hesitation.

Alicia looks at her curiously. “What changed?” 

“Apart from the whole world as we knew it?” Elyza asks as if it isn’t obvious. “But I guess _I_ did. I just… don’t want to be alone anymore.”

The couch creaks with the movement as Alicia straddles Elyza’s lap, assuming her position from this morning.

“You’re not.”

And then they’re kissing, picking up where they left off. Alicia cups the blonde’s face, lips crashing in a gentle but passionate dance. Elyza sucks her bottom lip and her fingers clench at Alicia’s waist. They taste the sweetness of the lollipop in each other’s lips.

Their kisses are curious at first, relearning what it means to be close to someone again. They go from playful nips to deep sensual kisses, slowly falling into the perfect rhythm. Alicia pushes the flannel off her shoulders and lets it fall to the floor. She opens her mouth deepening the kiss. When Elyza’s tongue meets hers and she feels the cold metal of the piercing, a shiver runs down her spine. She’s never kissed someone with a tongue piercing before, but she finds that she loves it. It makes her bolder, stokes the fire in the pit of her stomach. Her hands travel down Elyza’s torso, grabbing the bottom of her t-shirt and pulling it over her head.

Elyza’s chest heaves and Alicia finds she can’t take her eyes off of her breasts. They’re covered in a simple black bra, skin pale and creamy. Alicia pulls her bottom lip into her mouth, her lustful staring making Elyza’s skin flush. 

“You are _so_ not straight,” Elyza teases.

“Never said I was,” Alicia replies, voice low with arousal. She kisses Elyza again, hands roaming the exposed skin starting at her shoulders, down her arms and up her ribcage until she has Elyza’s breasts cupped in her hands. Elyza’s hands are still at her waist, clenching and unclenching with need. “You can touch me too, you know,” Alicia says, words husked against the blonde’s mouth.

Elyza can’t help the moan that leaves her throat at those words. She slips her hands under Alicia’s shirt, up her spine until she touches the edge of her bra. Her skin is so smooth and warm she’s instantly addicted. She wants to know what it tastes like. Elyza presses another deep kiss to Alicia’s lips before moving her mouth down to her jawline. She bites gently, just because it’s one of the things about this girl that drives her completely crazy. She leaves little bites and kisses all over her neck until she stops at her pulse point where she sucks and licks until Alicia is squirming. Her piercing drags over the sensitive skin and Alicia squeezes the flesh in her hands before reaching behind Elyza to snap her bra open and take it off her. She then takes her own shirt off and presses her body to Elyza’s. The blonde groans into her neck.

Alicia grinds against her and Elyza cups her ass to help her. Bringing their mouths back together, Alicia palms at the blonde’s chest like a horny teenager, which Elyza guesses she technically is. Not that she’s complaining. Alicia’s thumbs are playing with her nipples and Elyza thrusts up her hips in a desperate attempt to relieve some tension.

“Fuck, I-“ Alicia grabs one of Elyza’s hands and moves it to the button of her jeans. Elyza doesn’t waste a moment to pop it open and push her hand inside. She feels the warmth first, then the wetness that slides against the pads of her fingers. Three gentle swipes and the girl on top of her is shuddering in pleasure. “Ah! Fuck me,” she gasps, lips parted against Elyza’s.

“That’s the plan, gorgeous,” Elyza says, trying to sound cocky, but her voice is low and breathy and it comes off as incredibly turned on – which, she is.

Alicia drops her hands to Elyza’s jeans, unzipping them and sliding a hand under her underwear to touch her. Elyza’s just as wet as she is and Alicia gives her a filthy kiss as she slides her fingers up and down her center before focusing on her clit. Elyza jerks her hips up chasing the press of those fingers that feels a little too gentle. She whimpers into Alicia’s mouth and takes her hand out of the girl’s pants to grab her ass again. Alicia doesn’t seem to mind, focusing on bringing Elyza to the edge first.

After some more teasing, Alicia drags her fingers down to Elyza’s entrance, dipping her middle finger in just to the first knuckle. Elyza is so ready for it and she groans when Alicia finally pushes two fingers in, spine tensing in pleasure.

“Good?” Alicia asks to make sure she’s enjoying it.

“Yeah, I’m-“ Elyza pants as Alicia moves in and out tortuously slow, rubbing every ridge and bump inside her with her long fingers. Elyza really appreciates those hands. “It’s not gonna take much.”

Alicia smirks, drinking in the sight of the blonde woman panting and practically fucking herself against her fingers. She twists her hand a little to rub her thumb against Elyza’s clit in wide circles. From there it only takes a few more thrusts before Elyza’s throwing her head back in pleasure, bucking her hips so hard Alicia almost falls from her lap. She grabs the back of the couch and chuckles, palm pressing down at her center to help her ride her orgasm and control her hips at the same time. Alicia presses small kisses on her jaw, her chin and the beauty mark above her lip as Elyza comes down from her high.

Elyza turns her head a fraction to capture her lips in a sweet kiss. But Alicia still hasn’t come and she’s the most turned on she’s ever been in her life. She whimpers into the kiss, demanding Elyza’s attention.

Elyza hooks her fingers into her belt loops and lifts her off her lap, dropping her on the cushion. Alicia looks confused by the change in positions but her eyes widen and darken when Elyza kneels on the floor between her legs.

Her underwear is pulled down along with her jeans and her legs automatically open to accommodate Elyza’s torso. The blonde leaves faint love bites over her stomach and thighs until Alicia’s practically trembling in arousal, desperate for release. The girl threads her fingers between the blonde strands and pushes her down to where she needs her the most. Elyza laughs at her eagerness, teasing her with gentle puffs of breath over her center. 

Alicia moans, hips jerking up urgently, but all Elyza does is lick where her thigh meets her center, tasting the nectar that is coating the inside of her thighs. She hums, loving how the girl tastes. Alicia’s looking down at her, skin flushed from her forehead to the top of her breasts. Elyza smirks.

“You’re such an asshole,” Alicia whimpers.

Elyza makes a tsk sound. “That’s not very nice.” She finally dives in, licking a stripe up her center and giving a gentle suck at the top. “You should apologize.”

“F-uck! I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Alicia pleads. Her short nails dig into Elyza’s scalp as she tries to pull her back to her center. “I take it back.”

“Mhm, in that case.”

The talented tongue is back on her, parting her folds and drawing shapes on her clit. She sucks it into her mouth and uses the flat of it where her piercing rests so Alicia feels the contrast between the softness of the muscle and the hardness of the metal. It drives Alicia crazy, drawing the most obscene moans from the back of her throat. Elyza loves to see her like this, to be able to give her so much pleasure. She’s always been a giver, a top, if you will, enjoying giving attention to the girls she slept with a lot more than receiving it. It’s no different with Alicia but at the same time it feels completely new. She wants it to be so good for her. She wants to eat her out until she sees stars. She wants to worship her.

Elyza sinks her tongue into her, pushing it upwards so her piercing rubs along her walls. Alicia throws her head back, one hand in her hair as she sobs into her arm. Elyza fucks her with her tongue, coating two fingers in her wetness to massage circles on her clit. Alicia completely loses it.

Her moans are so loud Elyza fears the walkers will hear. Alicia’s legs are shaking, her spine bowing towards her as she comes. It’s a long orgasm; a whole minute passes before her muscles relax and she stops jerking at the sparks of aftershock. Elyza licks her lips, wiping her cheeks and chin and pulls up Alicia’s pants so she’s not cold and exposed. She sits next to her and Alicia, muscles feeling like jelly, falls into her side.

They get more comfortable, laying back in the small loveseat, a mess of limbs dangling over the edge. Alicia’s head rests on top of Elyza’s breast as her breathing gets back to normal. Elyza trails her fingers up and down her spine, unable to stop touching her.

“I _really_ like your tongue piercing,” Alicia says after a while, resting her chin on Elyza’s chest to look at her.

“I noticed.” There’s a smirk on her lips and her eyes. Alicia leans up to kiss her, slow and tender, without the urgency of their previous kisses. It makes Elyza’s stomach do a back flip, even after everything they’ve just done. This kiss is lazy, unhurried, like they have all the time in the world when nothing could be further from the truth. It tastes like a beginning, like the promise of a thousand other kisses to come. Regrettably, it can’t keep going for long; they have some unfinished business to attend to.

Elyza cups Alicia’s cheek, pulling away from the kiss. “Hey-“ but Alicia cuts her off, leaning in to capture her lips again. She sucks on her bottom lip and it feels like this is going somewhere again and they really have no time. “Babe, we can’t. It’s almost time.”

Alicia whines, red-kissed lips pouting at her and it takes every last ounce of her self-control to resist her. She sits up and Alicia is forced to follow. Elyza picks up her discarded bra and t-shirt, putting it on before turning to the girl and realizing she’s still pouting slightly; probably doesn’t even realize it. Elyza leans in, planting chaste, playful kisses on her lips until she’s not pouting anymore.

“There’ll be plenty of time,” Elyza tells her, “For… you know, us.”

“Yeah?” Alicia asks hopefully. “Does that mean you’re staying with us?”

 “What do you think?” Elyza smiles, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Alicia's cheek.

They finish getting dressed in silence, stealing glances here and there. The sun is low in the horizon and Elyza knows if they want to make it for the guard change they need to leave now.

 

They drive Betty to the spot where they hid the cans of gasoline and park her there. They keep to the shadows as they approach the camp, eyes never leaving the watchtower guard. Dry leaves crunch beneath their feet. When they are within hearing range of the watchtower guard, Elyza brings her finger to her lips and crouches behind a tree. She takes the knife from her sheath and Alicia’s fingers tighten around the bat.

Sundown comes fast. A man crosses the courtyard and approaches the watchtower. He whistles.

“About time you showed up,” guard #1 says as he climbs down the ladder.

“Abel was telling me about the clients arriving tomorrow,” guard #2 explains.

The two men stand next to the tower. “Who they taking?”

“The girl in green. Pretty little bird.”

“Oh yeah? That’s gonna cost them,” guard #1 says as he starts to leave.

“I know!” Guard #2 calls at his retreating back. “Tomorrow we feast!” He laughs at his own joke.

They have a small window to act and they know it. Elyza grabs a stone and throws it at a bush a few feet in front of them. It makes the expected noise, drawing the guard’s attention.

“What the-“ he mutters.

He aims his automatic rifle in the general direction of the noise. When he doesn’t see anything he approaches slowly. Elyza throws another rock, guiding him into her trap. When his back is to her she comes out of her hiding spot. The blunt side of her knife connects with the side of his head and he falls to his knees. But instead of knocking him out as Elyza was expecting, it only disorients him.

“You bitch!” He growls when he sees her. He throws out a punch, catching her in the cheekbone and making her stumble backwards. He pounces on her and wraps his hands around her neck, pressing hard on her trachea. She paws at his hands, desperately trying to get some air into her lungs. He’s a lot stronger than her and his rough hands are feel like iron claws, relentlessly squeezing her neck as much as she fights him. And suddenly, just as the black spots start to cloud her vision, he stops, falling limply on top of her. Elyza pushes him off of her, taking gulps of much needed oxygen as she looks up at her savior. Alicia stands, eyes wide and frantic, and her bat still held high.

“Two to one,” Elyza rasps, referring to the times they’ve saved each other’s lives. “I need to catch up.”

Alicia holds her hand out to help her up. “Are you okay?” She asks worriedly, cupping her face and seeing the bruise that’s already appearing around her eye. She touches it and Elyza winces, pulling away gently.

“I’m alright.”

She crouches to put two fingers on the guard’s pulse point.

“Is he dead?” Alicia asks quietly.

“No. But he needs to be.” Elyza positions her knife at the side of his neck. She glances at Alicia. “You should look away.”

Stubbornly, fiercely, Alicia keeps her eyes fixed on the man. Elyza pushes the knife in. She takes his rifle and slings it over her shoulder. It’s time for part two of their plan.

 

Betty is parked with the gas cans half a mile down the path. They wait until nightfall and then a couple more hours to make sure everyone is asleep. Next they fill the saddlebags, piling the other cans of top of the motorcycle and pushing it forward themselves. Without a guard by the tower and everyone else sleeping, they can approach the camp at their own pace. Elyza parks Betty by the watchtower and grabs two cans of gasoline. Alicia copies her. 

They start at the main entrance, pouring the flammable liquid all over the door and the frame. They do the same to windows and walls until the whole first floor has been covered in gasoline. The smell fills their nostrils and Alicia worries it’ll wake someone up. Elyza’s pouring a line of gasoline from the door to the courtyard, far enough to be safe.

“Do you wanna do the honors?” She asks Alicia.

The girl lights a match and holds it over the gasoline. She takes a deep breath and drops it. The fire catches immediately, traveling fast towards the building and then it envelops the house in a second. It’s bright and hot and neither of them expected it to happen this fast. Elyza has to cover her eyes and take a couple steps back.

Soon the heat starts to feel suffocating and the wood starts to darken. The fire reaches the second floor. The windows are clouded with smoke but the noises are unmistakable; the bandits are waking up.

People are yelling, a window opens, someone is dying of asphyxiation. The main door shakes as someone kicks it from inside. The burning wood breaks and crumbles, part of the frame falls with it. A silhouette moves through the smoke and then someone jumps out of the building. His clothes are on fire and he runs through the courtyard, finally dropping on the ground and rolling in the dirt. He’s screaming in pain and when Alicia sees his face her blood runs cold.

The face she’d never forget.

“It’s him,” she whispers to herself.

“Who?” Elyza asks confused.

The man seems to be putting out the fire on his clothes.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Alicia sprints towards him, Elyza yelling at her to stop. She stops next to his head and watches him try to breath through the pain. His skin is charred in places where the fire has touched him. He looks up at her with those beady eyes and reaches out his hand. Alicia swings down her bat against his head again and again until the bone breaks and the blood splatters around.

"That's enough," Elyza says touching her arm. "We need to go, now."

"What?” Alicia is perplexed. She lets the bat slip from her fingers. “What about my family?”

"Look,” Elyza points at the entrance of the building, “they're trying to get out." 

The bandits seem to have gathered whatever water supplies they had inside and are using buckets and bottles to throw it at the flames, faces covered in shirts and bandanas. If they clear the door enough to escape, Elyza and Alicia are done for.

"Alicia, we need to _go_ ," Elyza reiterates. "We'll come back for your family tomorrow. These bastards will be vulnerable then."

"Wait, no!” Alicia desperately tries. “Wait, you have the rifle! Use it!"

"What for? Do I just shoot randomly at the door? I can’t see shite! And think about it, they haven't seen us yet, if I shoot they'll know." Elyza reasons. "They'll come looking for us."

Feeling powerless Alicia puts her hands in her hair. The smoke coming from the front door is thick but she still can see glimpses of hands and arms working to extinguish the flames. Something in her snaps and she makes a decision.

"We need an explosion."

Elyza throws her arms up in frustration. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

Alicia's mind reels. Fire, gasoline, vapors, pressure, explosion. Fire, gasoline, vapors, pressure, explosion. It dawns on her. Her eyes snap towards the watchtower where Betty's still parked. Elyza follows her line of sight.

"No bloody way!" She exclaims.

"It'll work!" Alicia argues, following Elyza as she makes her way to her motorcycle.

"It's not gonna happen. We're leaving."

"Elyza, please," Alicia pleads, grabbing her arm to look her in the eye. There are tears there but Elyza thinks they might be a result of the smoke. "I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't think it was the only way."

Elyza shakes her head with a frown.

"Tomorrow someone's coming to take a girl away. If we don't make sure they all die tonight, this, _all this_ , will have been for nothing."

Elyza stares at her, blue eyes boring into her soul. At the main entrance a wooden beam falls over someone. A man is giving orders. The Traders are a resilient lot and there are too many of them still alive.

Betty's motor rumbles as Elyza puts the key in the ignition. "I hate this plan," she says. "I fucking hate it."

She walks with Betty, pushing her until she's staring right at the entrance of the building. Alicia stands besides her, not daring to talk in case she changes her mind. Elyza leans down to rest her forehead on the motorcycle’s dashboard and pats the seat like it's an animal. "I'll miss you girl."

Before she can reconsider what she’s about to do, she holds the breaks down all the way and gives it gas. The back wheel screeches as it skids on the dirt. She watches the speedometer until the arrow trembles close to 50mph and it gets really hard to hold it. And then she releases the breaks.

Betty thrusts forward, enough momentum to cross the courtyard and crash against the front wall. The next five seconds pass and nothing happens. Alicia's heart is pounding hard against her ribcage and she crosses her fingers, muttering "Please, please, please," under her breath.

And then Betty explodes.

The noise is deafening; the windows shatter, the ground shakes and both girls are knocked back on their asses by the shock wave. Alicia groans as she tries to sit up. She winces when she feels a sharp pain in her elbow and realizes she’s bleeding. The scrape looks worse that it probably is so she ignores it. Her ears are ringing and the wall of smoke is so thick she can’t see the building anymore. What she can see is Elyza laying motionless beside her.

“Elyza,” she calls crawling closer. She pats the blonde’s cheek but gets no response. “Elyza, come on, open your eyes.” Ear against her chest, she tries to hear her heartbeat or feel her breathing but she’s still feeling disoriented by the shockwave and her ears haven’t stopped ringing. She grabs her face, tears stinging in her eyes, a mix from the smoke and panic. “Come on, you fucking asshole!”

Elyza’s chest expands as she takes a huge gulp of air and then starts coughing.

“Elyza?! Oh, my God!” Alicia buries her face into Elyza’s neck and sobs in relief. “Oh, my God. I thought you were- I thought-“

“I’m alright,” Elyza wheezes. “Just got the wind knocked out of me, is all.” She pats Alicia’s back, her mind and vision clearing as the oxygen reaches her brain. “Did you just call me an asshole? Again?”

“I thought you were dead!” Alicia reasons as she sits back on her heels.

Elyza sits up with some difficulty; the rifle’s been digging into her back so she takes it off, throwing it away. “And that would make me an asshole?”

“Yes!”

The blonde’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “Okay, I’ll try not to die then.”

“ _Good_ ,” Alicia says and she’s being 100% serious which Elyza finds entirely too adorable.

The sky is starting to lighten and the breeze is slowly blowing the smoke away. The building is still burning but most of it has been consumed or charred. The stone in the structure keeps it standing but it’s clear that nothing inside has survived. Alicia stands and helps Elyza up. They watch the results of their efforts with a mixture of awe and horror, both covered in soot and sweat and framed by the twilight.

 

A series of loud thumping noises break the silence. They’re followed by muffled voices screaming and more banging on something metallic. Alicia gasps, “Mom.” She runs to the small clearing, dust rising as she sprints down the dirt slope. The voices sound clearer with each step.

“Mom!” She screams at the containers.

“Alicia?! Alicia!” Her mom’s voice comes from the green container and she pulls at the chain pointlessly.

“Mom!” She sobs, pressing her hands to the metal. “Mom, I’m here! I’m gonna get you out!”

“Alicia, baby, oh, thank God!” Madison says sounding choked and emotional. “We heard an explosion, are you okay?”

“We’re fine, Mom, I’ll explain later.” Elyza stops at her side, resting her palm on the small of her back in support. There are other voices coming from both containers, excited murmurs and pleas for help. “Are you all okay? Nick?”

“I’m here sis!” Nick says. “We’re all here!”

Alicia doesn’t know if she wants to laugh or cry.

“We’re starving, but we’re alive,” her Mom adds.

“Mom, the doors are locked. I can’t-“                                                                              

“Baby, listen, Abel is the only one that has the key,” Madison says. “He’s the leader; a big guy with a shaved head. He keeps it-”

“Around his neck,” Elyza finishes, having heard this before from Alicia.

“Who’s that?” Her Mom asks worriedly.

“It’s fine, Mom, it’s just Elyza.” Alicia glances at her. “She’s a friend. She saved my life.”

Elyza frowns and Alicia grabs her hand, lacing their fingers together.

“Oh, in that case, thank you Elyza, for saving my daughter,” Madison says, “I am in your debt.”

“It’s- it was nothing. She’s saved my life twice already, so we’re more than even.” Alicia squeezes her hand and smiles at her, a sweet little grin that almost distracts Elyza enough to forget about the task at hand. Almost. She coughs. “But we should, uh, we should find this Abel and get the key.”

“Wait, he’s dangerous!” Madison exclaims. “You girls don’t understand-”

“Mom,” Alicia cuts her off. “He’s dead. They’re all dead.”

There’s a pause. Alicia knows her mom is connecting the dots or at least trying to with the information she has.

“Did you- was that-“

“Mom, I- I’ll explain everything, okay? But first I need to get you out of there.”

“Okay, honey, just, be careful?”

“I will.”

Alicia tugs at Elyza’s hand, guiding her around the shipping containers and towards the courtyard.

“So…” Elyza starts, “I’m a friend, uh?”

Alicia rolls her eyes. “Oh, come on. You know you’re more than that. Did you expect me to tell my mom that I kinda have a girlfriend while she’s trapped in a shipping container?"

“I’ve been promoted to girlfriend,” Elyza says teasingly, “Nice.”

Alicia blushes, punching Elyza in the arm faintly. “Shut up.”

Elyza grins, an open, honest grin for once. No teasing, no smugness. Alicia’s blush only gets worse.

The lightness of the moment is short-lived when they see the courtyard. Elyza counts eleven walkers, feet dragging their rotting corpses towards the source of warmth and until a while ago, noise. Two of the walkers are hunched over the guy Alicia beat with her bat and said bat is laying beside them where she dropped it. Elyza takes her knife out, approaching them silently.

She shoves her foot between the smaller one’s shoulder blades, pushing her into the ground. She growls and fights to move, but Elyza’s boot is firmly planted on her back. The other walker looks up alerted but she’s already plunged the knife into his nape before he has time to react. She repeats the action with the walker under her foot, silencing her mid groan. Elyza picks up the bat and hands it to Alicia.

Alicia takes it, impressed. “I probably shouldn’t say this because you _really_ don’t need to have your ego stroked any more but… that was pretty cool.”

With a confidence that surpasses even her normal levels of smugness – and most of it is just for Alicia’s benefit, because she knows the girl finds it annoyingly charming – Elyza shrugs, pulling her aviators out of the breast pocket of her jacket and putting them on. “I know, babe. But thanks.”

As expected, Alicia laughs. She tightens her fingers around the bat and swings it around a couple times. The sun is peeking between the mountains, bathing the land in the orange light of the early morning. “Shall we?”

 

The walkers are mostly distracted by the huge beacon of heat, a couple of them have even made it inside the charred building. First they take care of the ones outside. They work side by side, never letting the other out of their sights. Elyza stabs, Alicia swings, and one by one they clear the courtyard.

The stone pillars of the building irradiate warmth when they approach the main door. The front wall is partly destroyed where Betty exploded and Elyza can still see pieces of her motorcycle strewn around. She takes off her aviators and steps inside. The roof is partly gone, either consumed by the flames or in pieces on the floor. Rays of the morning sunlight shine through the gaps, showing the particles of ashes and dust floating in the air. There are bodies laying in every corner.

Alicia stands close to Elyza and a somber silence envelops them. The reality of the situation washes over them like a cold shower. They have killed. They have taken human lives. And even when they know these people deserved their fate, even when they understand that in the long run it was the right thing to do, it’s very different to see the destruction they caused with their own eyes. One day they might tell the story of how they ended the reign of terror of the human traffickers, how they single-handedly burnt down every last one of them. One day they might be legendary, the slayers of the Trader’s End. But that day is yet to come and right now they stand in a burnt down building surrounded by the bodies of their enemies with the weight of their actions heavy on their shoulders.

“I am become death…” Elyza mutters under her breath.

Some of the bodies are almost completely burnt or spread out in pieces by the explosion. Elyza doubts those will be waking up. But others are in better shape, probably dead by suffocation and she can already hear some of them groaning into their new undead life. A leg kicks from under a fallen wooden beam.

“We need to hurry” Alicia says tugging at her hand, “they’re already turning.”

Elyza agrees; there’s no way she wants to be stuck in a major hazard of a building surrounded by new walkers, even if most are burnt and weak. She keeps her knife up just in case.

They don’t have much luck with the first two rooms. In what seems to be a living room, Alicia kills two walkers with her bat, one that has lost his leg and crawls on the floor towards her and another with dark veins on his neck and face, probably dead by asphyxiation.

Elyza crouches next to the burnt bodies, some of them still feebly snapping their jaws but unable to move. None of them have any keys around their necks. They find more of the same in the kitchen. They work swiftly, killing any walker that gets too close and ignoring the harmless ones that can barely move.

In the third room, a spacious study with tall windows, two healthy looking walkers – probably the ones that came from the courtyard – are hunched over another body, the sounds of flesh ripping and chewing making Alicia’s stomach churn. The walkers are too distracted feasting to notice them approach.

Once they’ve dealt with them, Elyza and Alicia push their bodies off of the man they were eating. It’s Abel. Elyza rips his shirt open and snatches the keys, breaking the chain. She observes his dirty face, the hole in his stomach where his intestines are spilling. He’s very much still in one piece and she knows he’ll be turning soon. She also knows destroying his brain would be merciful but she refuses to let this monster walk the earth for another day. Undead or not.

“Rest in pieces, bitch,” she spits, plunging her knife into his eye.

With the keys secured, Alicia shoves the bat into her backpack so she doesn’t lose it again and they run back to the shipping containers.

“Mom, we have the keys!” Alicia yells when they reach Green. Next to her, Elyza starts trying every key, hands shaky and sweaty.

“Baby, are you okay?” Madison asks.

“We’re fine, everything’s gonna be fine,” Alicia assures. The jingling of the keys is nerve wracking and Alicia wants to scream even thought she can see Elyza is working as fast as she can. Finally, after about six keys, the padlock clicks open. They pull the doors apart and Madison steps out, face pale and thin, blinking rapidly at the light. “Mom!” Alicia sobs, body crashing into her mother’s arms. She cries and cries and her mother holds her close, kissing her hair and squeezing her tight.

“My baby, my sweet, brave Alicia.”

“Mom, I was so scared,” Alicia hiccups. “I’m so sorry, I’m so- so”

“Shh, it’s okay. You were so brave.”

Alicia feels someone hugging her from behind and she turns her head to see her brother’s face, eyes teary and hollowed. “Nick!” She hugs her brother, relieved tears running down her cheeks again.

“Hey sis,” he rasps, rocking their bodies back and forth. “Thanks for saving us.”

She shakes her head against his shoulder. “I left you. I let the Traders take you.”

“And if you didn’t we would’ve all been fucked.” He leans back to look at her face mock-serious. “Learn to take a compliment, jeez.”

She laughs, her heart so light it feels like she’ll float away. A hand rests on her shoulder.

“Hey, Alicia,” Travis says. He seems a little timid. “It’s good to see you.”

“Travis,” she breathes, hugging him hard. She might’ve had her differences with the man but after a year of living and surviving together, he’s become something of a father figure. He’s taken aback for only a moment before he wraps his arms around her. Over his shoulder he sees Chris, Ofelia and Daniel and a few other people she doesn’t recognize. She lets Travis go to reach for her friends. Chris and Ofelia sandwich her in a hug and Daniel pats her back in gratitude.

“About time you showed up,” Chris jokes and Ofelia slaps the back of his head lightly. He lets her go with a chuckle.

“Thank you for not giving up on us,” Ofelia says seriously, rubbing her back before stepping away, her expression so open and thankful that Alicia has to look away. The other captives in the green container are an Asian couple with a teenage boy and a black woman about her mom’s age. Alicia’s overcome with the notion that there’s only one young girl in Green. Ofelia was the girl the Traders would have been selling today. A chill runs down her spine, the terror of what could’ve been making her chest feel tight. She hugs Ofelia again.

“I’m sorry it took so long.” She squeezes harder. “I’m so sorry.”

Ofelia looks at her strangely and Alicia knows she’ll never tell her what almost happened to her because it would only cause her pain. It’s a secret she’ll have to keep forever.

When she’s all cried out and has made sure all her family and friends are real and alive, Alicia realizes Elyza has opened the red container and a group of about eleven people are shaking her hand and crying gratefully into her shoulder. Elyza looks up at her over a sobbing older woman and gives her a tired smile. When the woman lets her go, Elyza looks over at all the people they rescued, people who had lost all hope and now are filled with the desire to live. She smiles sadly, stepping away from the scene. Alicia tells her mom she’ll be right back and follows her.

 

“They’re not here?” Alicia asks coming to stand next to her at the edge of the forest. She’s talking about the people the Traders took, back when Elyza was with her old group.

Elyza shakes her head, crossing her arms in a reflexive defensive posture. “Not that I had any hope. It was almost a year ago, they’re probably not even alive.” Elyza sighs. “I didn’t even know all their names. I just thought that maybe… if they were still alive and we rescued them…”

Alicia tugs at her wrists until her arms unfold. She laces their fingers together, leaning into her so Elyza’s blue eyes are fixed on hers. “It wasn’t your fault. You _have_ to know that.” 

Elyza looks away and Alicia cups her face. Her fair skin is covered in ash and dirt, her eye and cheekbone bruised. Her lips are pale and chapped and her usually sharp eyes are stormy with doubt and vulnerability.

“You need to let go of that guilt, it’s not yours to carry.” Alicia rests her forehead on Elyza’s and their eyes close. “It’s time to let it go.”

Elyza sniffs and nods faintly.

“Yeah?” Alicia asks.

“Yeah.” Elyza hugs her, the smell of smoke is strong but not enough to mask what she knows is Alicia’s scent. “Thank you. For everything. For making me help you, for giving me a reason to keep fighting. I- I-“ Whatever Elyza is trying to say she translates into a kiss. Her eyes are shut tight as her lips capture Alicia’s and she pours everything she feels for the girl into it. It’s hard and full of emotion and it grounds Alicia. It lasts only a moment but it leaves her panting into Elyza’s mouth.

“Ahem,” someone coughs behind them and Alicia's head snaps up towards the noise, her eyes widening and a blush spreading all over her cheeks and ears. Thankfully it’s not her mom, just Nick. And Chris and Ofelia. They have been caught red-handed and there really is no way to spin this so Alicia grabs Elyza’s hand and pulls her towards her friends.

“Uh, guys, this is Elyza.” Her blush is still in place as her brother and friends look at her with tiny, teasing smirks on their faces. “Elyza, this is my step-brother Chris, my friend Ofelia and-“

“Nick,” the boy introduces himself. He holds his hand out, his chin rising defiantly. “Her older brother.”

“Ah,” Elyza breathes understanding. This is his own version of ‘if you hurt her I’ll kill you’ speech. She shakes his hand firmly. “Nice to meet you.”

“You saved Alicia’s life, then?” He asks.

“Yeah. When I found her she’d just fallen flat on her arse and a walker was about to have a good snack. She was ‘ _kinda useless’_ ,” she makes quotation marks with her fingers and Nick frowns a little offended. She hurries to explain. “Her words, not mine.”

“Oh, shut up,” Alicia snorts, slapping her arm lightly. “What happened to ‘two to one, I need to catch up’?” Her friends look confused at that. “I saved her life twice and she only saved mine once so now’s her turn."

Chris, Ofelia and Nick look impressed and Nick realizes maybe he doesn’t need to protect her sister, not from this Elyza woman. And maybe not at all, considering Alicia did survive without them, save all their asses and manage to get a girlfriend in the process.

“So how did you guys find us anyway? And what the fuck what that explosion?” Chris asks.

And so Alicia recounts her story as they walk back to the group and make their way to the courtyard. Some of the strangers crowd around her, listening to her adventure from the moment the noises stopped and she crawled out of the closet to the moment the containers opened. Obviously, she leaves some parts out, like most of their time at the cabin, which she’ll treasure forever.

There are gasps and murmurs as the burnt building comes into view. When she reaches that part of the story she doesn’t give a lot of details and some people look at her like they’re afraid. Alicia doesn’t let that get to her; they did what they had to do. 

The four cars in Trader’s End are parked close to the shed and Elyza notices the padlock on the door first. “Hey, anyone knows what’s in here?” She asks, getting only shrugs and head shakes in response. She tries all the keys like she did at the containers while the people start separating in groups.

Red container separates into two groups; one takes the black pick-up truck and the other takes the jeep. The Asian family and the other woman that were in Green with Alicia’s family seem to know each other from before, or maybe they’ve been stuck in the container for longer. In any case, they say their goodbyes and take the minivan.

“Woah,” Elyza says from inside the shed she has finally opened. “Hey, before you leave… you might wanna take a look a this.” 

It’s an armory. Rows of automatic rifles, shotguns and guns cover one of the walls. The other has shelves filled with boxes of ammo. In a chest on the floor there are holsters and belts and other accessories. In a corner there’s a wooden rack with all kinds of sharp weapons: machetes, swords, even a fire axe.

The place is not that big so one person of each group goes in to take whatever they see fit. Travis picks some guns and two rifles, a few knifes and a couple machetes. While the others fill their arms with weapons, Elyza moves around, her eyes jumping from one deadly thing to the other until something captures her attention.

“Beauty…” she says. Her hands curl around the handles of two twin sawed-off shotguns. They’re short and not that heavy, with a flowery design engraved at the sides. She wraps one of the belts around her waist, buckling the straps on her upper thighs and holstering the shotguns. She pulls them out fast and aims, repeating the process a few times to get a feel for them.

That’s how Alicia finds her when she enters the shed, shotguns pointed at the wall and a smug expression on her face. Elyza sees her out of the corner of her eye and makes a show of blowing the tip of the barrel and holstering them with a flourish. Alicia snorts.

“Oh, come on. You know I look hot as,” Elyza drawls. She takes some boxes of shotgun shells, passing them to Alicia. The girl raises her eyebrow unimpressed. “You made me destroy my ride, you’re carrying my stuff.”

“Fine,” Alicia says with a long, pained sigh. She throws the ammo in her backpack. “We’re leaving, by the way.”

Their group takes the other pick-up truck. It’s longer but older than the other one, and the red paint is faded and chipped but it fits all eight of them. No one looks back as they leave what’s left of Trader’s End and soon the only proof that it ever existed is the faint column of smoke in the distance.

Travis is in the driver’s seat, with Madison and Chris at the front with him. Daniel sits with Ofelia at the bed of the truck with Nick, Alicia and Elyza. Ofelia’s head drops onto her father’s shoulder, falling into a well deserved, peaceful slumber as soon as they hit the main road. Nick leans back with his head almost out of the truck, letting the wind ruffle his long hair. Alicia and Elyza sit in front of him, Alicia’s feet tangled with her brother’s. Elyza’s arms are wrapped around her, one thrown over her shoulders and the other on her lap, where Alicia is playing with her fingers.

Elyza hugs her into her body, pressing a kiss to her temple. Now that it’s over, now that they can finally stop planning and worrying, Elyza realizes she’s become a different person than she was before she found Alicia. Before her, she would’ve never risked her life for someone else. Before Alicia, she would’ve never thought she’d feel this way for another human being. And she’s also sure that her heart used to feel a lot smaller than it does now.

They road they travel is empty and they head north, away from the woods an in search of a town where they can find some provisions and refuge. The future is uncertain, as it always is living in this kind of world, but Alicia knows they’ll be fine. They walked into hell and survived it, slayed the devil himself. And she found something that gives her the will to keep going, a reason to fight and live another day.

She found love, and with it, she found strength.

 

 

_Epilogue_

 

The house – more like a mansion – is easy to clear. Daniel and Madison are their best shots, followed closely by Elyza who’s having too much fun with her new shotguns. The walkers drop at their feet one after the other and they pile them in the garden outside.

Whoever lived in this house clearly had a lot of money, which is not strange considering they are still in Los Angeles County. The kitchen is well stocked and everyone but Alicia and Elyza are ravenous so the girls explore the rest of the house while the others eat.

There’s an interior pool, nothing too big, but as soon as Alicia sees it she feels like crying. Her clothes are off and she jumps in before Elyza has time to appreciate her nakedness. The water around Alicia turns gray as she rubs the dirt and ashes off her skin. She leans back against the wall of the pool, arms spread at her sides, breasts floating just under the surface and sends Elyza the hottest, most suggestive look the blonde’s ever seen. Elyza’s ripping her clothes off and jumping in in record time.

Later, when they’ve properly celebrated being alive and together, they join the others in the living room. Travis is asleep on the couch and Madison looks up when they enter the room. Her eyebrows fly up to her hairline and her jaw drops when she sees the love bites covering her daughter’s neck. Alicia looks at her strangely, clearly not having seen herself in a mirror. Elyza next to her looks like she wants the earth to swallow her whole. She might be full of cockiness and bravado but ‘I just did absolutely sinful and delicious things your daughter in a pool while you were in the house’ is not exactly the second first impression she wants to give.

Madison decides not to comment on it, which Elyza appreciates, even though she knows the woman is not going to let this go for long, not until they have a nice chat. Elyza is dreading it.

“Yo, guys,” Chris says, stomping down the stairs. “Ofelia and I just found _the_ biggest walk in closet ever. There is so much _shit_.” And then he runs back up.

With nothing better to do and looking down at their own dirty and torn clothes, Elyza and Alicia follow him.

Chris definitely wasn’t exaggerating; the whole room is actually huge. The closet alone is bigger than the cabin where Elyza and Alicia stayed. Alicia briefly wonders who lived here and makes a mental note to find clues. 

Ofelia steps out of the closet wearing one of those ridiculous Kentucky Derby Hats, paired with a purple wrap dress and huge sunglasses. “ _Hello, dahlin,”_ she says with a terrible southern accent. Alicia completely loses it.

There are some acceptable clothes too, from clean underwear to basic t-shirts, skinny jeans and even a warm hoodie that Alicia claims as hers forever. It feels heavenly to be clean and warm and laughing with her friends again.

Elyza sits on the carpet, leaning back against the side of the bed and watches the other three put on a show with the jewelry and accessories. Alicia joins her minutes later, pushing her legs apart and sitting between them, her back against Elyza’s front.

They watch Chris and Ofelia try to guess (and fail) the code for the safe they’ve found hidden behind the row of long gowns.

“Hey,” Alicia says suddenly.

“Yeah?” Elyza asks amused.

“You know what I just realized?”

 “What?”

“I don’t know your last name,” Alicia twists in Elyza’s arms, putting a hand on her neck and looking at her in bewilderment.

Elyza chuckles, then rolls her eyes and mutters something too quiet for Alicia to hear.

“Come again?”

“It’s Lex. My name is Elyza Lex.”

“Lex,” Alicia repeats. “As in Lex Luthor.”

“Piss off!” Elyza says in between chuckles; not the first time she hears that one. “It’s German, alright?”

“Mhm,” Alicia hums, twisting back into her previous position. “Your name sounds totally fake, but-” Elyza pinches her side and Alicia gasps, squirming away from her hand. “But! Lemme finish!” Elyza stops to hear the rest. “But, my feelings for you are totally real.”

For once Elyza’s the one groaning at what is probably the lamest line ever uttered by anyone, ever. She drops her head into Alicia’s shoulder and feels the girl shake with laughter. “You know that was terrible, right?”

“Now you know how it feels.”

Elyza lifts her head to look at her, at the smugness drawn all over her face. Alicia seems so proud of herself, lips pressed in a smirk and eyes twinkling. Elyza’s really, absurdly, stupidly, honest to God, so in love.

“Fair enough.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that's that! I hope you enjoyed reading and if you did, it would mean the world to me if you dropped me a comment. I just really wanna know what you think!


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